Israel at 70:

Who is proud to be Israeli?

New poll shows stark divide between Jews and Arabs in their views on Israel's accomplishments and Israeli identity.

David Rosenberg, 02/05/18 12:12

Israeli flags at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

Flash 90

Nine out of ten Israeli Jews say they are proud to be part of the Jewish state, a new poll shows, while a majority of Arab citizens of the state say they don’t feel pride to be Israeli.

The survey, published Wednesday morning by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, was conducted on April 24th and 25th, just days after Israel marked its 70th Independence Day.

According to the poll, 91.3% of Israeli Jews feel proud to be citizens of Israel, compared to just 7.6% of Jews who said they were not proud of the Jewish state. Only 1.5% of Jews said they were “not proud at all” of Israel.

By comparison, 60% of Arab citizens of Israel said they weren’t proud to be Israeli, including 44% who said they were not proud at all. Just 33% of Israeli Arabs said they were very or moderately proud to be Israeli.

In a similar vein, Israeli Jews were far more likely to be satisfied with Israel’s achievements since it declared independence in 1948.

A paltry 10.7% of Jews said they were not satisfied by Israel’s accomplishments over the past 70 years, compared to 87.3% who said they were very or moderately satisfied.

Just 40% of Israeli Arabs said they were satisfied with what Israel has accomplished, compared to 48% who were not satisfied.

Israeli Jews also tended to express optimism over Israel’s future, while Israeli Arabs were much more evenly divided. Seventy-five percent of Israeli Jews said they were very or moderately optimistic about the future of the State of Israel, while 20.5% said they were moderately or very pessimistic. By contrast, Israeli Arabs were evenly divided on the question, with 44% of Arabs saying they were pessimistic about Israel’s future, compared to 44% who say they are optimistic.

Among both Arabs and Jews, however, roughly three-quarters say they would remain in Israel, even if they had the ability to move elsewhere. Just 17% of Israeli Arabs and 13.4% of Jews said they would prefer to move to another country if they could.